Mother angry student left behind at zoo

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Mother angry student left behind at zoo

OKLAHOMA CITY – Malachi Mills is a 7th grader at John Marshall Mid-High school.

He was excited to go on a field trip to the zoo Monday.

Unfortunately, when it was time to leave, he said he was left behind.

“I went to go get some friends from the jungle gym but got sidetracked and they left and then I was all alone,” he said. “I came back to the entrance and saw that the bus was gone.”

Malachi said he sat by a vacant cop car for a while in hopes an officer would return to his vehicle.

Eventually, the school called his mother, Danielle Mills, and told her there had been some confusion but Malachi was safe.

Luckily, Malachi said someone did help him.

“A really nice man came up to me and ask if he was OK, ‘I said no,'” he said.

Malachi used the man’s cell phone to call his mom and tell her what had happened.

Mills was very upset when she got the call.

“There was no concept of my son was safe,” she said. “There was no teacher, no chaperone, no principal. He was there by himself.”

Tierney Tinnin, Spokesperson for the Oklahoma City Public School District, issued this statement.

“Oklahoma City Public School District staff members follow safety procedures when students participate in field trips including assigning teachers to a group of students and keeping a roll of students on the trip. The John Marshall Mid-High School assistant principal stayed in contact with the student`s parent and assigned a teacher who remained at the zoo until the student was located.”

This mom said what they say they’re doing isn’t good enough.

“Parents, teachers, chaperones go out on these field trips and their needs to be checks and balances in place,” she said.